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Ypsilanti Historic Walking Tour |
8. Continue south to 121 N. Huron. This Italian Villa Style home was the Watling residence. Built c. 1870 in brick, it is L-shaped with a tall central tower characteristic of the style. The arched windows feature heavy pediments of stone. The tower features a mansard roof with dormer, while the main roofline is a front facing gable. Note the bay windows and small porch at the entrance, features of this style. Note the ocular window in the third story in the center of this front facing gable. There are large hoods over the two main story windows. The fenestration is symmetrical and there are double brackets in the main roofline of the home with single brackets supporting the tower roofline. The house was the first in the city to have electricity and running water.
John Watling was a dentist who taught at the then-new University of Michigan School of dentistry. His grandfather won 5,000 pounds in the English lottery and moved his family here. Watling's wife Eunice helped found the Ladies Literary Club in Ypsilanti.
This home, like many others in town, was once apartments and is now a single family private home.
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9. Next door at 119 N. Huron is the former Watling Dental Clinic. It was built to match the Watling home. It dates from the early 1890s. It is Richardsonian Romanesque in style. This style consists of heavy stonework and arches, seen here on the front facade of the narrow brick building. A massive red sandstone arch frames two stories of windows. There is a large front porch and bay windows on the sides. There is locust wood on the interior from Watling's farm. It is more of a commercial form of the Romanesque Style with a flat roof and heavy cornice. The building possibly was designed by famed Detroit architects Mason & Rice.
The home was restored by local architect Dennis Schmiedeke and his wife Jane. It is now two apartments.
Continuing south on Huron Street, another possible detour on the route is Michigan Avenue and the downtown commercial area of the city. One can stop and go shopping for a bit, stop by the Convention and Tourism Bureau at 106 W. Michigan for brochures on where to visit next, visit a coffeehouse, restaurant or bar, or stop in the library at 229 W. Michigan.
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10. To continue the walking tour, cross Michigan Avenue and continue south on Huron Street. Stop at 114 S. Huron Street. This 1890 Queen Anne Style home was built by J. F. Sanders. He was a merchant in the city. The house was designed by Von Falkenburg, an architect who often included towers and turrets on his buildings, which can clearly be seen in this house. The prominent stone and wood tower is topped with an unusual cone-shaped roof. The white, wood sided house also has porches on the first two stories on the front. These porches feature extensive use of wooden trim detailing and latticework. This is characteristic of the Queen Anne Style; a Victorian-era style where the more elaborate a house was, with more details, the better. Some of the windows are of stained glass. It has five chimneys piercing the multi, steeply gabled, green shingled roof. Note the bay windows and the eyebrow dormers in the south roofline on the third floor. Eyebrow dormers have low arched roofs that look like eyebrows.
From 1944 until 1967 the building was neglected. It was then purchased and renovated into six apartments. Restoration work is ongoing.
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